French duo Lyon and Lille rattled in the goals in Tuesday’s Champions League action as the former enjoyed a 3-0 cruise over hapless Dynamo Kiev and Lille gave themselves a great chance of progressing to the knockout stage with a 3-1 victory over AEK Athens.
Lyon’s victory still leaves them to concede a goal in this year’s tournament after three matches while Lille’s victory put them in pole position to take second in their group as AC Milan recorded a 1-0 win with only 10-men to see off Anderlecht.
There were goals aplenty too in other matches as Real Madrid set aside Saturday’s league reverse to trounce Steaua Bucharest 4-1 in Bucharest, while Group F top two Manchester United and Celtic both recorded 3-0 wins over FC Copenhagen and Benfica respectively.
Hamburg’s catastrophic season continued apace as they went down 4-0 to FC Porto leaving them winless in all competitions this term — Porto’s good night had started with group leaders and last season’s finalists Arsenal surprisingly losing 1-0 away to CSKA Moscow.
Lyon had their match wrapped up by half-time with goals from inspirational captain Juninho and a superb individual effort by Swedish international Kim Kallstrom — Florent Malouda grabbed a third in the second-half for Gerard Houllier’s men.
Houllier was delighted to have obtained such a result away from home.
”This team is progressing in leaps and bounds but its task is to carry on at the same rate,” said the former France coach.
”I believe now that we have a 75% chance of progressing to the next stage,” added Houllier, who seemed to want to err on the side of caution.
However there was no doubting how high his Kiev counterpart held his team in.
”It is difficult for me to reproach my players as Lyon were simply too good,” said Anatoli Demianenko.
”They really are one of the best sides in Europe now.”
Lille were tied back at 1-1 at one point but two goals in the final minutes saw them through against their Greek opponents but again the French side’s handler Claude Puel kept his feet on the ground.
”We got a good result tonight but we have only played half the matches so far,” said Puel, who guided Monaco to the 2000 league title in his previous job.
Steaua were watched by a capacity crowd and there was a record television audience also but they were quickly aware it was going to be a difficult night as Real ran riot. For their Brazilian midfielder Emerson it was the perfect response to Saturday’s defeat by Getafe.
”We played really well — we haven’t played like that for a long time,” said Emerson, who joined from Juventus in the summer after they were demoted to the Serie B following the match-fixing scandal.
”Tonight we showed great character and with this kind of spirit, together with the quality we have in the squad, we can win any match.”
However Real coach Fabio Capello while delighted that the players had responded to his criticism after the Getafe reversal remained realistic about the challenge ahead.
”We still have to be careful because we have not yet qualified.”
Alex Ferguson was left purring about his side’s demolition of Copenhagen, another manager delighted at the way his team was responding after their embarrassing exit at this stage last year.
”We know all about last year,” Ferguson said. ”We don’t want a repeat and we are not getting a repeat and that speaks highly for the team and their motivation.
”They have grown up. They don’t want any more embarrassments, they are winning and they are playing good football into the bargain.”
His bitter rival Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had no excuses to offer for his side’s limp display against CSKA, though, he was angry at Thierry Henry having a late effort ruled out for a doubtful handball.
”Now we have something new — they [referees] cancel goals because they saw things that did not exist. That is a problem.”
Sadly for Wenger CSKA’s goal did exist and gives the Gunners a tougher run in than they could have expected when the draw was made. – Sapa-AFP